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If George Bush wins -- 2004-10-31
 
I write this before the presidential election. If George Bush wins the election there are some things that are certain.

I live with the ideals put forth in the Declaration of Independence, and the Constitution. I think both documents represent the world's last great attempt at self-government, and self-determination.

If George Bush wins the election then I know that this country has turned a corner, away from the willingness to help one another. We've strayed quite far from that ideal. There was, however, a short time after September 11th, in which we came together as a people. I saw people realize that we are one in the same. I saw people put aside their differences, and understand that whatever is good for our neighbor is also good for us. The attacks served to unite us in a way that I had never experienced before. Perhaps it was the knowledge that the terrorists saw us all the same. They didn't see black skin, or brown skin, or white skin. They simply saw us as Americans. And for that brief moment in time I saw us coming together for a common cause, under a shared pain.

A little more than three years later I see none of that unity. I see a nation divided, more than I have ever seen it divided before. The irony is that from unity has come division. From hope, has come despair. Because George Bush has squandered a most unique opportunity in history, and turned it into an opportunity to make money.

These are the reasons why I can not stand by Bush if he wins a second term. If Bush is re-elected, then I will know, once and for all time, that this county has turn its back on the individual. Because Bush has shown more regard for corporations, and their well-being, than for the well-being of the citizens of this nation.

He has eviscerated environmental laws, in favor of short term profits. In doing so, he has assured that the earth will never be the same. The air will be unfit to breath. The water will be unfit to drink. The oceans will rise, the weather will change, and the last remnants of wilderness will be bulldozed in the name of profit.

He has lied to the world repeatedly, specifically about the alleged weapons of mass destruction possessed by Iraq. It is now known that those weapons did not exist, and that the President knew they didn't exists. Yet, he found himself compelled to launch a pre-emptive war into a country that did not possess such weapons. All the he ignored the real dangers in Iran, and North Korea. Iran is in the midst of creating nuclear weapons, while North Korea already possesses them.

He has spit in the face of those who bare arms, and fight the battles of freedom. He has chosen conflict, not diplomacy, as his first option. He has sent young men, and women, off to distant lands to kill, and be killed, for a lie. He has fabricated excuses for a conflict that now has no resolution.

He has ignored the laws of this country, preferring to instill religious ideology, and dogma, into a government founded on the ideals of Greek democracy. The idea of individual freedoms are not spelled out in the bible. In a democracy it is the people who are the supreme rule, not a God that may, or may not, exist. To force one religion on a nation is not only foolish, it is undemocratic. It replaces a founding liberty, the right to choose to worship however one pleases, with the idea of repression.

He has turned his back on the American people. George Bush swore to defend the Constitution. Yet, he has instituted laws that erase civil liberties. He has found it easy do erase rights that have been fought for with armed struggle, raised voices, and blood.

But lastly, I can not back George Bush as President, if he is re-elected, because he is a liar. He has lied from the moment he was sworn into office. He has deemed it necessary to keep secret the actions of his presidency. Totally shrouding his acts as president in a cloud of secrecy, never to see the light of day, or the judgment of history.

The Constitution represents the rights of every individual in this nation. As Alexander Hamilton said, "The sacred rights of mankind are not to be rummaged for, among old parchments, or musty records. They are written, as with a sun bean in the whole volume of human nature, by the hand of the divinity itself; and can never be erased or obscured by mortal power."

George Bush has tried to redefine a document established not only by the minds of men, but by a higher consciousness, a consciousness we call God. George Bush has put profit before treasuring the natural splendor of God's creation. Whether you believe that there is a God or not, the fact is, George Bush has turned his back on nature, and humanity. He has turned his back on the divine, and embraced all that is evil--the heart of his own darkness, that exists in the immorality of money, greed, imperialism, and autocracy.

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